Oilers rally, slip past Avalanche

Edmonton, AB – Magnus Paajarvi scored the winner with 1:34 to play as the Edmonton Oilers rallied from a three-goal deficit to take a 6-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist while Ales Hemsky also scored twice for the Oilers, who had lost six of seven coming into this contest.

Devan Dubnyk gave up three goals on 12 shots and was pulled after the first period. Nikolai Khabibulin allowed just one goal on 17 shots the rest of the way.

Matt Duchene and Jamie McGinn each posted a goal and two assists for the Avalanche, who have lost four of their past five games. Semyon Varlamov was tagged for all five goals on 55 shots in the loss.

"They just outplayed us, bottom line," Duchene admitted. "It's really disappointing to lose that one. Up 4-1 you should never those. That one's going to sting."

Trailing, 4-1, in the second period, Edmonton began the comeback when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on a one-timer in front off a feed from Taylor Hall for his first goal in 25 games at the 15:59 mark.

Less than a minute later, it was a one-goal game when Ryan Smyth picked off a pass in the Avs end at the left side and fed it to the slot. From there, Hemsky took the puck on a highlight goal as he danced around Shane O'Brien before sliding the puck past Varlamov for his seventh of the season.

Skating on the power play, the Oilers tied the game when Sam Gagner faked a shot before throwing a hard pass to the low left side where Eberle recovered it before stuffing the puck into the net at the 8:58 mark of the third.

The Oilers finally took the lead with 1:34 to play. Smyth brought the puck into the zone at the right and pass it to the slot for Eric Belanger, who then tried to pass it back to Smyth, but a defender got his stick on the puck. However, it bounced right to Smyth, who then whacked the bouncing puck over to the left and Paajarvi smacked it in.

Eberle put the puck into the empty net to seal the win and give the Oilers 56 shots on the game, a new team record.

"You're going to get goals when you shoot the puck 50 times on net," Nugent- Hopkins said of his team's shooting barrage. "It's something that we want to keep working on."

Colorado scored just 1:22 in off a left circle faceoff as the puck came to the net and Cody McLeod jammed it in.

It was a 2-0 game at 18:47 of the first as Duchene skated into the zone down the right wing and made it to the net before putting the puck home and the Avs made it 3-0 just 24 seconds later when a 2-on-1 saw Duchene send the puck from the right to the left and McGinn buried it for his second of the season.

The Oilers, though, got one back on the power play with 3.1 seconds showing on the first period clock when Hemsky put the puck in from the left side of the net.

Colorado, though, got it back 6:24 into the second on the power play as John Mitchell's shot from the slot got under Khabibulin for his fifth of the season.

Game Notes

Edmonton had reached 55 shots twice before ... Edmonton hosts Los Angeles on Tuesday ... Colorado hosts Nashville on Monday ... The Oilers have won two of three from the Avalanche this season ... Edmonton center Teemu Hartikainen left the game after the second period with a shoulder injury ... Colorado was 1-for-4 on the power play while Edmonton was 2-for-4.